Dao of Money

Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal for Chen Ren to go after the lord’s personal collection.

He was already planning to do that anyway for Shrey’s books. Therefore, learning that the journal was there too only made the whole thing more… personal. From what Chen Ren knew, the floor lord’s personal collection, while listed in the index, was not truly part of the library itself.

It wasn’t something one could access through a trial room, and because of that, it also meant the books there could likely be taken away normally and stored inside a spatial ring. At least, that was what he had gathered from everything Shrey had told him about the place long ago.

That made the whole heist sound simple enough. First, they had to get into the lord’s chambers, then take the books and store them in the rings and finally, get out and leave the library for the master lift.

That had been his plan from the start.

Now, though, with Princess Yanyue also needing the journal from that same collection, the job gained another step. It also meant that it might take a little longer than he had first planned.

Still, that was something they could account for while moving.

The bigger problem, at least for Chen Ren, was something else.

Even after going through the index, he still hadn’t found any book that clearly looked like it would contain information on the medallion. That made his mood sink even further.

After all, the medallion had been his main reason for coming here in the first place. If there was no such book in the library, then where exactly was the thing supposed to be hidden?

There was always a chance that one of the listed books did mention it and he had simply failed to notice the right title.

But there was no real way to test that.

He could not go through every single book that looked remotely related to hidden artifacts in a place this large. That would take far too long, and he knew it. No matter how he looked at it, chasing that possibility now felt like a lost cause.

By now, Chen Ren had already realised that the medallion was probably treated as something extremely significant by the pagoda.

That feeling didn’t come only from the fact that he himself had failed to find any real clue about it. Jun was clearly searching for it too, and from the way the man had spoken, it didn’t sound as though he had found anything either. He was in the library for information on it, which meant he had likely been chasing the same trail for a while now.

Chen Ren had a strong feeling that Jun had been moving through the pagoda with that single goal in mind ever since it opened, yet even then he still had nothing to show for it.

Chen Ren couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or a bad one.

In the end, though, he leaned toward it being good. If the medallion had been easy to find, then there was a real chance Jun would already have it, and that would mean Chen Ren might have to steal it from a demonic cultivator.

He had no desire to do that, especially not against one who was clearly far older and more dangerous than he looked.

Still, none of that changed what they had to do now.

They still needed to get into the lord’s personal collection and take the books from there, and that meant planning things properly. There was no reason for all of them to go in together either.

So once they were done with the index, Chen Ren turned to the twins. “I think you two should go after the sky-grade techniques in the library and copy them down. I doubt we’ll be able to take those manuals out of the pagoda, but if you can copy them, it would still be worth a lot.”

The twins immediately looked at each other. The greed in their eyes was obvious, but it dimmed just as quickly when Li Qingxue spoke up, “But those won’t be reachable without passing the trials first.”

“Yes. That’s why I’ll leave Yalan with you. She should be able to handle most of the trials here. It should make things easier.”

Yalan’s tail swished at once. “You’re going to the lord’s chamber alone?”

Chen Ren shook his head. “No. With Princess Yanyue.”

“Are you sure you can do it with just the two of you?” Yalan asked again.

“Yes. Having more people with us won’t help much, especially when we have the chance to get more sky-grade techniques out of this place. Copying them down will take time anyway.”

As he said that, he took more blank notebooks out of his spatial ring and passed them to the twins.

“Just stay away from Jun,” he said. “And if he tries anything, run into a trial room.”

Both of them nodded, though neither looked fully certain. Even so, Chen Ren trusted them enough by now. Out of everyone who had started with him, the twins were still here, still moving with him, and that meant something. For a brief moment, his thoughts drifted to Li Xuan and Zi Wen and what might have happened to them, but Princess Yanyue’s voice pulled him back to the present before the thought could go any further.

“We’ll also need a way for everyone to escape together if something goes wrong in the lord’s personal chambers.”

Chen Ren looked at her, and before he could answer, Yalan agreed. “Yes. If the lord starts chasing you two, you can’t just run and leave me and the twins behind.”

That possibility was easy enough to imagine.

Honestly, it was more likely than not. The pagoda had already taught him more than once how quickly a plan could turn into a disaster.

Still, there was a simple answer to that.

“Just stay in your true form,” he said and looked at Yalan. The cat frowned immediately, but Chen Ren went on before she could object. “If you do that, you can carry the twins and rush down at any time. And if the lord starts chasing us, I’m sure there will be enough noise in the library for you to realise what’s happening… I don’t think there are any soundproofing arrays here.”

Yalan looked like she wanted to scoff at that. The twins and Princess Yanyue, meanwhile, only looked confused, and that was when Chen Ren realised none of them had actually seen Yalan in her true form.

Still, he knew that if they started asking questions now, it would only put her in a worse mood, so he cut that possibility off before it could begin.

He stepped closer to Princess Yanyue and pointed toward one of the corridors.

“I think we should get moving. The sooner we get to the lord’s personal chamber, the sooner we can get out of there.” Then he turned to the twins. “You two understood what we talked about?”

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Both of them nodded at once, though their eyes kept drifting toward Yalan, who still looked far from pleased. Chen Ren didn’t bother saying anything more. He simply started walking with Princess Yanyue, trusting that the others would handle themselves.

They passed shelf after shelf as they moved deeper into the library. More than once, Chen Ren’s eyes lifted toward the upper levels, but there was still no sign of Jun or his disciples.

Maybe they were already inside one of the trial rooms. Maybe they were searching elsewhere. Either way, the lack of sight of them did not calm him much.

“Is the lord’s chamber really this way, Sect Leader Chen? You only said it was underground, but I haven’t seen any stairs.”

Chen Ren turned his head toward her. “They’re hidden. You need to pull a lever to reveal them.”

Princess Yanyue raised a brow at that, but Chen Ren only kept walking.

He led her through more shelves and more intersections until he finally stopped in the middle of one where four bookshelves stood around them, with a few books lazily floating overhead.

“We’re here.”

He moved to the bookshelves on the left and started counting, then pulling books out. First book from the top shelf. Third from the middle. Sixth from the bottom. Princess Yanyue watched him with clear confusion, but Chen Ren did not stop. When he finally pulled out the fifth book from the seventh shelf, the quiet around them broke.

There was a grinding sound followed by a heavy pull of chains.

In the next second, a latch in the ground opened. Princess Yanyue jumped back on instinct, but nothing came out of it. There was only a dark opening with a flight of stairs leading down.

Chen Ren glanced at her and smiled.

“Shrey gave me the way to open it. Other than the city lords, no one really knows how to access this place. There isn’t even a clue about it anywhere in the library.”

Princess Yanyue looked down the stairs for a moment. “What did he say about the danger below?”

Chen Ren thought about that for a few seconds. “Actually, he doesn’t know.”

“What do you mean he doesn’t know?”

“Well,” Chen Ren said, “Shrey hasn’t been here in a long time, and the last time he came, the security measures apparently never activated. So he said he has no idea what we might actually run into down there. But he did say the lord itself should not be awake, so whatever comes our way, I think we can deal with it.”

Princess Yanyue still didn’t look convinced. “Even if the lord is sleeping, that doesn’t mean we won’t run into something dangerous.”

“That’s why I have you with me, your highness.” Then he looked down the stairs again. “Now let’s move. We’re already wasting enough time.”

Saying that, he jumped onto the stairs and into the darkness below, and Princess Yanyue followed right after him.

For the next five minutes, the two of them did nothing but keep moving downward. Chen Ren stretched out his void sense the whole time, carefully checking for any danger that might be waiting for them, but at least during the descent, there was nothing. It was only the sound of their own steps—and stairs. Endless, dark stairs.

There was no light source down there either. Princess Yanyue kept a qi ball floating above her palm to light their way. After a while, the stairs finally began to flatten out, and then they ended entirely.

What opened before them was a huge chamber.

Even with the qi light, they could not see all the way to the far end of it.

Chen Ren stopped at once. “There might be traps all through this place. I think we need to light up the whole chamber first.”

“I can do that.”

The next second, she let the qi ball disperse and formed her qi bow instead. Energy gathered into her hand, then into the bowstring, and when she pulled it back, three arrows made of light took shape.

She fired them straight into the darkness.

A moment later, the arrows exploded into countless motes of light, and the whole chamber brightened.

Only then did Chen Ren truly see how large it was.

It was almost as big as the common library above them, with doors built into the walls on both sides, likely leading into different chambers. But unlike the library, this place had no warmth to it at all. There were barely any decorations. The walls were plain. The stone felt heavier.

The whole place looked and felt more like a dungeon buried beneath a castle than a hidden section under a library.

And standing there, seeing that, Chen Ren could only hope he would not find corpses down here.

With that thought still in his mind, Chen Ren turned to Princess Yanyue.“Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground that way. Come find me if you see the books.”

“Don’t step on any traps,” Princess Yanyue said.

Chen Ren gave a small nod back, then started moving slowly through the huge chamber.

A part of him had expected some array to go off the moment they stepped inside, but nothing had happened so far.

He thanked the heavens silently and kept walking, staying alert and letting his eyes and senses move over everything around him. There were cabinets placed around the chamber too.

He passed a few of them and glanced inside, but he didn’t bother opening them. They didn’t look as though they held books in the first place.

So he kept moving—step after step. Until he came to one of the doors on the side.

At that point, he decided it was better to start checking the rooms directly. Hence, he pushed the door open, and it gave way as easily as he had hoped.

He stepped inside, but before he could even think—his whole body froze.

There, right in the center of the room, was a bed, and on top of it, the lord was sleeping.

***

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